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Tuesday, 11 March 2014

Whenever I'm really, really stuck and down about photography I head for the seaside. A warm and sunny Sunday afternoon saw the beach quite popular. Once more I missed out on the fun. The horse riders were all packing up. I'd also missed the sea anglers launching their boats and couldn't be bothered hanging around until they came back in on the tide. One of these days I'll go to the beach earlier in the day instead of leaving until the day is almost over. Maybe. The strange thing is I actually prefer the beach when there aren't many people around.

I tried to make a suggestion of the boat anglers in their absence by photographing the tracks of their vehicles and trailers. It might read more easily at a larger size. The repetition of shapes at the near edge of the gully appealed to my eye. Not much of a pictire but it might work in combination with others. Or it might not.

I was struck by the way people flock together like waders on the tide edge. Either side of the group below there was empty sand. What appealed was the matchstick figures making a frieze-like image. Hence the panoramic crop. To really make this sort of picture work it should be made with a high resolution lens and printed large I feel.

As can be seen, the sun decided to hide by the time I reached the sea and made my way back to the car. Typical.

Monday was a day of fishing and playing with the compact camera. The limitations are a minor frustration. What really bugs me with all the small sensor cameras I've used is the magenta/purple cast to the images. Not just fringing round high contrast edges but over the whole picture. One thing that small cameras do for me is encourage experimentation. This usually leads me to push them beyond their capabilites. The pictures can work okay as web images though.

This afternoon saw more bright sunshine and another trip to the seaside. I really should have put my hand in my pocket to park closer to the action instead of walking in. I made more pictures than I'd intended, and almost all were absolute rubbish. The best of the rest were pretty dire too. Sometimes it feels like a complete waste of time. In fact there was nothing worth posting except for one which reminded me of an idea I thought about pursuing a while back.

"I don't like work - no man does - but I like what is in the work - the chance to find yourself. Your own reality - for yourself, not for others - what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means."